The Link
by McCainSr
Summary: A boy is haunted by a telepathic link.


The boy awoke, screaming her name as he slung cold sweat from his brow across the room. He sat there in the black, slowing his hyperventilation, and raised his hand to his face, covering his vision in darkness. His vision came back to him and he saw the gaps between his fingers; beyond that lay his empty room. There was only his bed, the half empty dresser and the door. He listened to the sounds of silence and repeated himself, "Vivian." He breathed more.

The nights for Garret Smalls were never peaceful. He always had horrible nightmares, things he knew he didn't remember for good reason. There was noise in there. Noise . . . and death. Garret stood up and walked to the dresser. From it he pulled a dirty pair of pants, the pockets full of his junk. Garret slipped these on and grabbed a shirt to towel himself off with. A nearby clock told him that the time was 12:11. He hadn't slept long. Garret wasn't sure he had expected to.

From the left pocket Garret pulled a paper box and slid out a long dark cigarette, a clove. He pulled out a lighter from the other pocket and lit the cigarette, stepping onto the balcony. He felt the icy winds whip around his young body and shivered a bit. The moon shone above him, pouring light onto his calloused hands. Garret stared at the blue light illuminating his fingertips and flexed his hand. He rubbed the thumb and forefingers of his right arm with one another and then touched his cheek. He looked up into the night sky, seeing the moon call to him.

The name rang out again in his mind. "Vivian." Garret puffed on his cigarette, taking thick clouds into his mouth, then inhaled his miniature heaven. His tangled nerves unraveled. All that was left of the dream now was the chilling name. Vivian. It was nothing he knew. Garret walked back inside and opened the dresser once more, pulling open a small drawer. He fished around and pulled out a black book, thumbing through the blacked out pages. Page after page revealed nothing but thick bars of permanent marker, blotting out his past. A picture fell out of the pages and Garret examined it, then bent over to pick it up. Garret stared at a picture of a cute young brunette girl. Turing the snapshot over, the young man saw the name Lacey Treece. Garret made no expression and put his cigarette into the film. The photograph melted away from the smoldering staff of paper and he tossed it out the empty window.

Walking into the front rooms, Garret moved to the coffee machine, sliding the switch to "ON". At the counter was a paper, written in dark permanent marker. Many jumbled phrases filled the page: "Wake up," "Save me," "Trapped," "Can you hear?" "psycho," and "die." Garret grabbed the marker and uncapped it, his hand seeming to jerk into a frantic seizure. "Need help," "cellar door," and "Vivian" appeared under his marker jerks. Garret stared at the paper.

Cellar door. It was said to have been the world's perfect phrase but one needed to be insane to see how this worked. According to the polls, the consensus was that the only close rival was "I am." Neither of them sounded like entirely complete thoughts to him, so Garret Smalls concluded that he was not insane.

"Vivian," he said again. "Who are you?"

When the sleepless night gave way to morning, Garret rose from the couch in the living room and walked into the shower. The hot water didn't work, so he punched the wall, breaking a tile. When he walked out of the bathroom he noticed that the weather had begun to warm from the night's chill. He dressed and walked outside. The sun had fully risen free from the horizon and now shone fully on Garret. He looked up to the softly shining sun and stared at it appreciatively. At this time of the morning, Garret didn't mind the sun. For the early hours, it seemed less a ball of fire and more of an overhead light. Garret stretched and yawned at it and then continued walking. He quickened his pace to a light jog, then looked to his untied shoes. Groaning impatiently, he squatted to tie his left one.

The door across the street opened and a young, athletic man stepped out. He brushed his long hair back and leaned forward, stretching his right leg. He switched positions to stretch the other and did a few moments of quick jumping jacks. The man uncapped the water bottle he kept in his hand and drew water from it into his mouth. He swished it around for a moment and then spit it on the ground. Garret watched the jogger as he took off. The man's head turned and he waved to Garret. Garret stared back with a listless face and unwelcoming hands. The man ran on. Garret took time to finish tying his shoes, watching his unwanted company disappear.

Garret again stood and surveyed the empty block. He ran in the opposite direction. Pulling a long cord, Garret unraveled a set of headphones linked to his walkman. He let these fall their full length before he jerked them back up into his hands. He quickly adjusted them onto his head and pressed play on the tape recorder. There was a loud scream of static and Garret came to a quick stop, throwing the small speakers from himself. He looked at the tape player and lowered the volume. He picked up the headset and moved it close to his ears, feeling out the volume. He pressed the button again, but there seemed to be no song playing.

Garret slid the small speakers over his head again and listened. In the tinny static, he could hear something. Thinking the sound was too low now, he adjusted it.

"Help," the voice said. "Help me." With a confused sneer, Garret listened closer, picking out a new sound. This was deeper, and growled out incomprehensible words. He heard phrases in a different dialect and tone groaning with savage meaning. There were human screams and the same unearthly roars, laughing. Garret dropped the headphones, where and they dangled just off the ground, chained to the walkman. He turned the radio off and began running again, trying to get the static out of his ears.

The static did not go away. It rang in his ears all day, clips of words and scattered thoughts screaming and calling for him. When he came home, he threw the door open, driving the knob into the drywall of the adjacent wall. He ripped the door free and slammed it. Walking directly to the medicine cabinet, he broke the aspirin bottle on the counter and pulled three capsules free. He tossed these back in his mouth and swallowed them with some difficulty. He exhaled as slowly as he could and ended up coughing. A piece of the medicine retched into his mouth. Garret gagged and spit the tablet out. It fell to the floor, where he stomped on it, growling as savagely as the monsters in his mind. Reaching into the refrigerator, he took out his last cola and opened it. He quaffed it and found the small can empty before his thirst sated.

He walked over to the couch and let himself drop onto his back. A hard plank of wood slammed into his shoulders, but he ignored it. He was too tired to hit everything that tried to piss him off today. He sat in the silent room, slowing his breathing. He allowed his fatigue to overcome him and he drifted away.

The window opened and a dark mist entered the room. Chains came up from the couch, wrapping around his arms and legs, but he didn't even struggle. The dark cloud caught the wind and began to swirl across the room like a tempest. Darkening the room with a black cyclone, the storm rippled with green electricity. Unearthly screams filled the air and with every breath Garret took, he sucked in the ashen winds, singeing his lungs. He could feel his chest cooking, burning hotter until his chest erupted into flame. The air ignited into a blazing hurricane, bearing down on him as he screamed. But Garret wasn't screaming in pain; it was a primal yell. He wasn't chained anymore, but standing erect in a tower of flame, howling with rage.

The inferno froze in its endless cycle and remained still as the brilliant orange and reds whipped around Garret's form. He remained still, mouth frozen open, eyes closed, arms out and clenched with fists. Flickering across his mind the message faded: "Help me. Please."

And then he was feeling memories. It was too quick to understand, but he was filed with several fragmented ideas. "Happy." "My friend." "Gone." "Cold." "Alone." "Trapped!" "Scared…"

Then finally he awoke with a jolt. Garret's mouth reacted involuntarily, screaming out "Vivian!" He looked around, and wiped the sweat from his face. The dream was gone again, leaving only the cryptic name. He thought he remembered being abandoned, then lost. Suddenly he was trapped and screaming for help. But that wasn't his dream.

Garret looked to the VCR on his TV stand. It was now 2 in the afternoon, he knew because the VCR was set to 5:30. The headache was hitting harder again, so Garret walked to the broken bottle on the counter and dragged another three capsules off and put them into his mouth. Before he could swallow them, there was a knock at the door. Garret whirled around in surprise, then gritted his teeth. He walked to the wooden door and opened it, hiding behind the metal security door. Two young men in dress clothes smiled at him. Garret knew what they were before they could talk.

"You guys again." Garret was accusing them. Their smiles almost faltered, but the one on the left started right in.

"Hello, sir. My name is Thomas and this is Isaac. We're wondering if you'd be interested in being saved."

"If only," Garret mused as he went to shut the door.

"We're here to help!" Isaac chirped. "With the world being what it is, everyone needs Jehovah."

Garret kept the door open a crack. "No God would have a name that silly."

Thomas picked "With the economy dropping and the disappearance of young Vivian Ford, people are needing something to believe in." Garret stopped for a moment and looked at the wall. He took in the name. Sensing insecurity, the two moved in with more ferocity. "We'd like to help you through this –"

But Garret slammed his fist on the mesh of the security door and screamed a warning. The two jumped back and Garret slammed the door on their weak protests. He leaned against the wall and opened the window. He lit a cigarette and held it beside his face for a moment, watching it glow. He blew on it, brightening the colors, remembering something. He moved the cigarette into his mouth and puffed on it, then sucked the cloud of carcinogens into his lungs.

"Vivian Ford," he said finally. The idea ran through his mind and he moved to the computer at his side. He started it and waited for the operating system to load. With a loud hum, Windows came up and he double clicked on the Internet. There was a long delay during which he hit the monitor twice with his fist, and the browser came up. He did a search for Vivian Ford and, after more waiting, found results, one from a web server of homepages and one from a news site on the top. After clicking on the link he came to a news site with the headline "Vivian Ford 22, Missing". He glanced through the article and began reading about the local areas it mentioned.

Garret looked up from the article and closed his eyes. She was close to him. He knew it. Garret thought for a moment and then walked to the fridge. What was he thinking? Even if she was lost, why should he care?

Garret grabbed the carton of milk and drank from it. It was somewhat close to souring, but nothing bad. He finished the jug and went to the couch. He lay down and looked to the ceiling. He stretched and looked to the TV. He turned it on and watched a program about 80's culture.

-

"Vivian!" Garret awoke with a start, screaming again. It was now 9:50 – the nearby clock said 1:20. Garret turned off the TV and looked to the dark outside. He put on his shoes and stepped out. "Who the hell are you?" he asked. "Why won't you leave me alone?"

Silence answered him as the wind blew across the block. He looked around at the houses. She could have been in any of them. He didn't care if he had to go door to door; he had to get this over with. He walked straight across the street. Halfway across the empty road, Garret heard a whimper. He turned around, looking behind him to the house two places from his. "Help me." The voice was in his head, but he understood.

Garret took off in a run. He was at the door in no time. The lights inside were on and he could see a television on through the window, though no one was around and no sound played from it. Garret pounded on the door. The man who lived here was a recluse, an overweight slob who didn't leave the house at all. Everything he needed was delivered to his door. Looking down, Garret saw a large box at the doorstep. He pounded again, waiting for something. When nothing happened, he looked through the window and checked around for signs of movement. He pulled a knife from his pocket and flipped out the blade. He quickly cut open the box and found it full of pornography. There were six magazines, young girls covered with blood and subjected to bondage in them. Two videocassettes were also in the box as well.

Snuff videos, Garret realized.

Garret looked around once more, then tried the door knob. The security door opened and the heavy wood also. He stepped into the house silently. Garret slid the door shut behind him, but found it caught on something. He turned to check and there was a sound behind him. His arms were suddenly locked behind his back and an overweight man had him in a tight hold. Garret yelled out and the man quickly shut the door, moving a slider away from blocking the door.

"Curious, are ya?" asked Jenkins. The fat man whispered in his ear. "Let go of the knife." Barry Jenkins squeezed Garret's hands against the handle of the knife with tremendous force. Garret screamed and dropped the knife to the floor.

Garret continued screaming. His eyes wandered the room frantically, catching the way the wall continued beyond the door jamb. The window in the kitchen was double glassed. He almost figured it out before Jenkins could tell him.

"Scream all you want. It's soundproof." Jenkins grabbed the knife and released Garret. "When you like screaming, it's important." Jenkins's eyes quivered in their sockets.

Rage overtook Garret. "Not completely," he said, remembering that his dreams had been too loud to let him sleep for days.

Barry Jenkins pulled a knife from a leather sheath on his side. He compared Garret's knife with his own elegant blade, then put Garret's on a table. "Nice knife," Jenkins said. But Garret leapt at him, slapping the knife away from his body and jumping over the man's shoulder. He rounded on the surprised man, getting him in a headlock and pulling himself to climb up Jenkins's body. He readied his weapon and dug into Barry's eye. The man swung the knife up to Garret, digging it into Garret's side, but Garret didn't notice. Jenkins began thrashing around, slamming Garret into the wall once, but Garret shoved his weapon further into the man's wound, digging around. Whether he passed out from the pain or if Garret had reached the man's brain, Garret didn't care. The man keeled forward and fell. Garret released him and rode Jenkins's back to the floor.

A great pool of blood rapidly spread across the floor. Garret watched it cover his foot. He shoved the man over and reached under his face to take his bloody keychain back. He wiped them lightly on his shirt and placed them in his pocket. He wiped his hand off and walked to the bathroom. He rinsed his hands and wiped them on one of the pink towels.

"Vivian," Garret called. "Where are you damn it?" He searched through the front room, looking for a hidden entrance to anything. Finding none, he moved into the bedrooms. There was another empty room. The next was obviously the man's sleeping area, meticulously cleaned and perfectly white, from the sheets to the drawn curtains. He moved on and found a locked door. He turned the lock and opened the door.

Garret found himself in a black room. Dirty metal hooks jutted from the walls, chains latching one wall to the other. A bed of steel mesh was in the middle of the floor, covered in blood. Beyond that was a naked girl, in her early 20s with black hair. She was chained to the bed with a heavy iron collar fastened around her neck. She smiled when she saw him and walked to him. "You found me!" she said, jubilantly.

Garret held up his hands. "Just wait one fucking second. What's going on here?" She recoiled and looked down. "Why the hell have you been crawling around in my head?" He moved to her, screaming bitterly. "I've had nightmares the past eight nights! I can't remember any of them, except that you're there! What are you doing to me?!"

The girl's light brown eyes looked up to him softly. She made a connection to him and spoke, filling his mind with the same echoing cry. "I'm speaking to you," she said, her lips not moving. "It's just a little gift I have."

"STOP THAT!" Garret snapped, meaning to throw his entire body at her and hit her in anger, but nothing happened. He just screamed. "Why can't I move?" he demanded.

"I'm inside your mind, Garret."

"Then get out!" he yelled. "Get the fuck out of my head!"

"Please calm down," she pleaded, speaking both in and out of his mind. "I don't want you to hit me."

"If you can overpower my will so easily, why didn't you just stop him from hurting you? You don't need me, you didn't need to ruin my day, you didn't have to go fucking with my mind!"

"Garret, please. I'm not going to let you go until you calm down. I did use my ability against him. It's why he's left me alone for so long. Garret looked at her thinning body. She had been starving. "Yes, she admitted. I've been locked in this room for eight days. I needed you to help me."

"Find yourself another hero. I can't help you," he snapped.

"Alright," she agreed. There was a long while before she spoke again. "Garret, let me go."

"What? You let me go!" he snapped.

"I can't, Garret," Vivian said. "You're holding onto me with your anger. Your mind is locking me in."

The room darkened away and Vivian found herself in a bleak abyss. She was wearing a pink shirt and blue jeans. Walls thickened from nowhere and bony, flesh bound passages enclosed her. They lengthened and spanned into a labyrinth of sinew and bone.

"Get out of my head, god damn it!"

A tear of frustration streamed from Vivian's eyes. "I can't! Now I'm trapped," she called to the sky. The demon formed in front of her, a body of flames enclosing a dark ashen figure. An elongated face with unnaturally long curving fangs stared out at her, the fangs extending as it spoke. "What are you doing to me?!" Garret's form asked. "Is this what you see when you look at me?!" He growled and slammed his ignited arms against the walls of his manifestation. "I'm being nice," he said slowly. "You have until the count of three to get out of my head and get lost. Got it?"

Vivian screamed and began to run. "I'm trying!" she said through her tears. "Please Garret, I'm not trying to hurt you!"

Garret felt her soul trickle through his brain, searching frantically. He began counting. "One!" he yelled out, watching her disappear around a corner. Garret didn't hesitate between numbers. "Two!" He called. "Three!" The flames around him burned brighter. "I warned you! I warned you!"

A figure appeared beside him. Garret turned to look at the young girl. She was no older than 16, staring up at him with loving eyes. "Garret…" she said. The young brunette smiled at him. "Do you remember me?"

"Lacey." Garret said her name and moved to touch her. "Lacey . . . I missed you so much."

Lacey walked and touched his face, then recoiled in pain. "Ow, Garret. You hurt me." She held her hand in pain. "Why are you burning?" She stepped away from the flaming demon.

"I'm sorry. I don't know," Garret admitted. "I'm just this way in my mind."

"Then let's leave it," Lacey suggested. "If you stop thinking, you'll get out. Then we can be together again."

Garret thought more, looking at his hands. "I'm inside my mind, Lacey. You can't be real. You're in Virginia. You left me when I needed you most," he turned away from Lacey. "This isn't real. I know it."

Garret turned to Lacey quickly and crushed her head against the walls of the labyrinth. She shattered easily and spilled the fluids of her mind over his hands, where they sizzled against his burning flesh.

"Vivian!" Garret yelled. "How dare you get into my memories! I'm going to kill you!"

He began running after her, following the path he last saw her take.

-

Vivian felt a shiver of pain cross over her soul as she ran. She knew immediately that he had killed the memory of Lacey she had created to distract him. She continued to run down the endless maze of muscle, coming to a path where the walls began to close in. As she entered it, several eyes manifested in the walls, which opened and all looked at her. Vivian ran and took another path, avoiding the narrowing. She fumbled for another memory, the cold words of Lacey Treece still echoing in her own mind.

"You're useless! I can do better than you and you know it!"

Vivian searched through Garret's memories, hearing him scream threats as she did so. Another memory surfaced in his mind and she created it.

-

Garret ran down the pathways and dead ends, following to the place he had last seen Vivian run. He heard noise behind him and turned, confused. The jogger from earlier today had appeared and was catching up with him.

"Hey there, neighbor," said the jogger.

Garret tried to ignore him, "Get lost."

The jogger kept a steady pace with Garret. "You don't leave you house much or come to my barbeques."

Garret didn't turn his head. "Yeah. I was hoping you'd notice."

"You're more than welcome to join us neighbor! We're a part of community. You've been hit hard by life and need friends more than anything. It's never too late to start a new life, you know?"

Garret kept running. "I appreciate the sentiment."

"I also notice you love to run. It makes you feel great, doesn't it? It's the closest thing you can get to love nowadays."

"Vivian, if you look through my mind any more, I'm going to make you wish you had died of starvation."

"Garret," the jogger said, "I understand your pain. I know you don't want me in your mind, but I can't help it. It was the only way."

Garret clothes lined the jogger, forcing him to a quick stop. "How many of my memories are you going to dig up, Vivian? What do you want?"

"Freedom, Garret. That's all." Vivian's eyes looked out from the jogger's. "Just forgive me and I'll be gone."

"How much do you know about Lacey?" Garret spit out. "Did you see everything there?"

"I know she hurt you, Gar," the girl admitted tenderly. "I understand."

Garret threw out his arms and sent plumes of flame over his neighbor's body. "You understand nothing!" he yelled. "You hear me? Nothing! You can't possibly know what it's like to be me!"

Almost immediately another body appeared. Garret turned to it and stared. Standing before him was Lacey Treece, wearing the pink shirt and blue jeans she wore on the day that she left him.

Lacey played out the memory. "I'm leaving and that's final! Stop being such a little bitch and just give me back my stuff."

"What about the last five years?" he heard his voice asking from long ago.

"What about them?" she replied. "I've been cheating on you four of them, you knew that."

"No," was his denial.

"Yes. I even left you clues and tried to make you see. I left a condom on your desk. How could you not know?!"

"But I . . . I love," the voice from the past broke. "I love you."

"Five years too late," Lacey said. "It's too late to be who you never tried to be."

"I was always there for you. Even if I couldn't, I was there."

"You were useless! You still are. Admit it, you're useless! I can do better than you and you know it!"

Garret moved to Lacey and slapped her. This time his mouth moved. "This time I did it Lacey!" he cheered. "I hit you. I'm treating you like the bitch you are!" He kicked Lacey across the hallway. "How do you like it? How do you like being abused? It doesn't feel that great does it! Funny how the tables turn!"

And Garret hit her again.

-

Vivian felt weak. She sweated and stopped to catch her breath. Two more of her manifestations had been killed. It took a lot out of her to make those and she didn't know how many she could make without losing consciousness – Not to mention that she was running as she controlled these.

She had to keep at it. If he caught up to her, he would kill her too. That would destroy her link to him forcibly and probably kill her. Even if she knew that he really didn't want her dead, he would think nothing of killing her in his own mind. Garret wasn't a bad guy, he was just hurt and confused - especially with an equally confused telepath running loose in his mind.

Vivian knew that her only hope was to break him. As much as she knew it would hurt him, she realized that she had to. She pulled another manifestation and sent it to him. She prayed that this one would be more effective.

-

"Hello there, sir." Two young men formed before Garret's path. "I'm Isaac and this is Thomas."

"We've met," said the demonic Garret, stopping at their block.

"Ahh," said Thomas. "But have you met our father?"

"I already have a father." Garret moved on, pushing Thomas aside.

"So sorry," said Thomas. "I didn't mean any offense."

Isaac stepped in, "I know that you're hurting. There's ways you can be helped."

"Don't need it," Garret said. "Thanks."

Vivian's eyes looked out to him. "Just because you've been hurt doesn't mean you have to push everyone away."

"Who said I do?"

"You do with your actions. You've done it often."

"They say I'm not good enough. So fuck them."

Vivian used Isaac to grab Garret's hand. "I never said you weren't good enough. In fact I said you were perfect."

"You don't want me," said Garret. "You just need me. There's a difference. I don't need help, I don't need God, I don't need friends, and I don't need you."

"Can we just talk about this, Gar?"

"Don't call me Gar." He snapped bitterly. A flash of memory recalled that as Lacey's pet name for him.

"Please. I'm begging you."

"You looked into my mind! You don't know how scared that makes me!"

Vivian looked to him. "I do, Garret."

Garret shoved her hand away from him. "Then you understand why I hate you for doing it."

Vivian nodded in Isaac's body. "Please understand that I didn't mean to hurt you."

"But you did." Fury flashed in Garret's eyes and Vivian dismissed her manifestations. They disappeared into silver dust and floated away. Garret stood there for a moment, staring at the wall, biting his lip. His clenched hands trembled, and he fought tears.

Garret began walking, taking long strides. Eyes lined the walls of the labyrinth and long branch-like arms stretched from the sinews of the corridors. He would catch her. He had to.

-

The arms grabbed at Vivian and pinned her against the opposite wall. They held her hands and legs flat and brought cords over her eyes. She was trapped now and helpless. There was still only the one option and she summoned the rest of her strength and began creating. With a loud scream, white energy shone from her body and exploded across the labyrinth of Garret's mind.

-

Garret was bathed in a white haze that surrounded him, confining him with solid wall. He had the feeling of movement, but wasn't able to tell, since he could see nothing but the radiant light. As it touched him, he became human again, but he struggled angrily.

"What's going on now?" he yelled. "Is this your doing Vivian?"

A younger vision of Vivian appeared by his side as the world became visible. He was in a hospital and looking down at a young couple. There was a doctor standing over a woman, lying on a bed while the man held her hand.

"Yeah. It was," Vivian explained. "You're in my memories right now. And I'm just another construct. So if you destroy me, no biggie. I'll just create another one."

"That's gonna get old real quick," said Garret. "What am I watching?"

Vivian looked down in the room, watching the man scream as his wife crushed his hand. "My birth."

-

There was another flash of light and Garret and Vivian stood over an open field, watching a young girl skip across the field. Two boys chased after her, laughing and holding balloons. The girl held a flower in her hands and blushed at the two boys.

-

Another flash had the girl at a birthday party, wearing a pointy hat, sitting in front of a cake. The two boys, now a little older, sat on either side of her. She smiled to both of them and blew out the candles. There were nine in all and the center one sparkled and relit. The two boys burst into laugher.

Vivian stood over the girl's shoulder, brushing the girl's long dark hair with her hands. "The girl was happy in her youth, and lived a normal life until she was about ten years old."

"Look, the girl's obviously you, so can we skip the mystery?" asked Garret.

"She loved two boys very much, this girl." Vivian stared at the two boys as they gazed at her younger self, stars beaming from their eyes. "They were Jesse and Caleb." The boy at the seat marked Jesse was a sandy haired boy with a missing front tooth. He grinned like a young trouble maker would and stuck his finger into the cake, then smeared frosting on Little Vivian's nose. Caleb was the thicker one with a small nose and dark hair. He was quieter, but smiled gently at Vivian.

-

There was another flash and Vivian was in different clothes with a different party hat on. She was with an older Jesse in a different room, holding his hand. Vivian led Garret to get a better look at her and her young suitor as they moved together and kissed. "She fell in love with Jesse and gave him her first kiss the next year. Then things got really bad."

Garret watched the young boy as he backed away from Vivian quickly, his hand's clapping over his forehead. "What happened?" A quick geyser of blood shot out from Jesse's nostrils, Vivian screamed and moved away from him. The boy began to scream. "What did you just do to him?"

Vivian looked out the window, too scared to look at the boy. "I was in love with him and my only thoughts were letting him know everything I felt for him. I broke his mind, to put it simply."

Garret watched horrified as the blood pressure rose once more and the blood shot out from his nose and leaked from his ears and eyes. The boy screamed and went into a seizure, shaking violently and spreading blood everywhere.

-

There was another flash and two years later a twelve year old Vivian and slightly older Caleb stood at the top of a bell tower. Caleb was at the end of the wall, his back to the ground.

"Get back! Stay away from me!" Caleb yelled.

Vivian and Garret stood in the sky, watching Vivian cry as Caleb threatened to jump off the top of the tower.

"And what's happening here?" asked Garret.

"What else?" asked Vivian sadly, "Same thing. I drove him crazy."

Caleb closed his eyes and jumped, leaving Vivian to fall to her knees and cry.

"All the women want to drive the men crazy," mused Vivian her tone dull. "That was my gift."

"I was crazy long before I met you," said Garret.

Vivian tried to smile. "I know."

-

Garret and Vivian appeared in the house again, where a sad young Vivian cried on her mother's lap. Her father had wrapped tin foil around his head and stood across the room.

"Two!" yelled her father. "You've killed two people!"

The mother held her hands over her daughter's ears. "Ronald! Stop it this instant."

"She's a murderer! How can we live like that? How are we safe? She can't even control it!"

"I kill everyone I love," the Vivian beside Garret said. "Everyone."

-

Garret and Vivian appeared at a graveyard, where a 19 year old Vivian cried at a pair of gravestones. The names read Lillian and Ronald Ford. Both Vivians were crying. Garret read the headstones and put his arm around Vivian, comforting her.

"You were hurt, so you don't trust anyone. I am trusted and hurt others. We're complete inverses, Garret. That's why I came to you. You're the opposite spectrum so you know how I feel." Vivian held Garret closer. "That's why you could help me, and maybe I can help you."

Garret looked as the world around them faded back to reality. They were back in the black room and she was again naked. "I know everything about you, so I guess it's only fair that you know everything about me."

"You have a strong spirit, Garret. I could have crushed your mind, but instead I just pissed you off," Vivian explained. "We could never be lonely again. Don't you understand? We can complete each other."

Garret released her and took a step back. He removed his jacket from his back and put it around her. "I suppose it couldn't hurt to try." Vivian smiled and snuggled up to Garret. The two walked out into the hall and walked out the front door. Two police cars pulled into the driveway and lawn and stepped out to greet the girl and her unlikely hero.


End file.
